Ten | Hospital Trip

The room, was awkwardly tense. It was like standing in a mine, where one wrong move could trigger a domino effect of explosions. The Princesses cowered under the gargantuan pressure in the air.

The Princely hosts? It had become a norm for them. Since Mei's presence, they got used to her and Kyouya's disputes and figured that no matter how angry they were at each other, it never did last. Though the people in question had no idea, as per usual.

Tamaki stood in between Mei and Kyouya's evil stare match. "Now, now, Mei-chan, even if we take Kyouya to the hospital we need to bandage his arm up first," said Tamaki, making sense when the time was needed. The twins came back, Hikaru gave Kyouya his phone, and Kaoru gave the first aid kit which was passed on by Haruhi. "Haruhi, would you..?"

She flashed a bemused smile at the King. At times he really acted like the leader. Making her way round Mei, she sat Kyouya down and bandaged his arm.

Mei backed away as Kyouya removed his clothing. She turned around, her voice slightly shaky. "I'm going… to get changed…"

As she pushed her way through the crowds, the three girls who Mei argued with weeks ago finally saw her. One stuck out her leg, and Mei clumsily tripped over it in a floppy slapstick manner. Hunny saw this, and cocked his head the side and gave Mori a questioning look. Mei was not this clumsy. They went over, helping her up.

"Mi-chan, are you okay?" asked the loli-shota.

"Um… Err…" she looked a bit pale. Mori gave Mei a stern look which she deciphered as a repeat of Hunny's question, "I'm good, really Mori-senpai…" she awkwardly and slowly looked back to where Kyouya was at, and the hastily ran to the store room.

Hunny repeated the questioning look at Mori. This was unusual. Mei held a lot of pride, and she retaliated calmly with any bullies she faced. Surely, at that moment, she would've snapped at the girl? Mori looked around for those three girls, but found they had blended in with the other princesses and remained un-found.

* * *

Kyouya looked at the direction where Mei ran away. He was irritated. Not only did she give him no attention but she ran off? This apprentice of his needed to be disciplined. He looked at Haruhi, who had experience of first aid from fixing up her father from time to time.

"Haruhi…" her brown eyes levelled to his, "Check up on Mei-san when she returns."

No more then ten minutes after Mei ran off, she returned looking very normal. She had taken off her Belle dress, and wore the purple shirt and black skirt; her hair still curled. She pushed a wheel chair (found in the store cupboard) through the crowd, and shoved Kyouya on it. There were a few objections and rushes of commandments and Kyouya demanding as usual, but with Mei in her sisterly-look-after-patient mode there was no stopping her racing Kyouya down the hall and into a taxi.

* * *

"Mei-san…" said Kyouya, for the umpteenth time.

"And so," continued Mei from her light hearted conversation with the taxi driver. She bluntly, yet again ignored Kyouya. "My cousin, had called over a whole bunch of his university friends and were in my room! He said that they invited themselves over, could you believe that?"

"Mei…san…" growled Kyouya, 'accidentally' thumping his fist on the back seat; glaring at her from the view mirror in the car.

She sat at the front, averting her eyes from him and becoming strangely interested in the dashboard of the taxi. "Wh-what is it, Kyouya-senpai?"

He felt a nerve pop. She was blatantly ignoring him. "With one phone call I can get a hospital's worth of doctors at my side. This is unnecessary."

She nervously scoffed, "Be realistic, Kyouya-senpai. Wow, Driver-san, that was a smooth take over, and look at that steering wheel, is it a…"

The taxi driver laughed shyly, "My my, call me Kishima, Ojou-san. So you know a bit about cars?"

Kyouya felt a growl from the back of his throat; he suppressed it, giving a sigh. He looked at his bandaged arm; the blood was starting to leak through the bandage. He felt a stabbing pain, and began massaging the wound.

"Kyouya-senpai!" called Mei, seeing the pain stricken expression on his face; "Just hold on, we'll be there soo-" she saw Kyouya turn his palm; the blood had smugged onto his hand. She remained silent.

Again. Again she ignored him. Kyouya couldn't figure out why. He always felt he had to strain his brain muscles just to understand this girl at times. A smirk crept up his features. "Mei-san," she ignored him, but he knew she could hear him, "would you do something to distract me from my arm?" He meant the question in a less-innocent way.

"Distraction?" Mei suddenly became really enthusiastic, "That's brilliant! Let me tell you a story…"

Kyouya sighed, she didn't catch the drift at all but she continued talking nevertheless. When she began he could see her Disney-fairytale side controlling her story telling.

"Once upon a time… There was a nee-san from a family of two parents and five other siblings. They were wealthy in power, riches, and liked by many. But their kindness was their downfall, and this nee-san could easily see the malice in the client's fake smiles and courtesies. Who were as greedy as blood sucking vampires; sucking away the power of this family. She cast her true self away, hiding the smile, showing no kindness, becoming the guard dog of her family and baring her fangs at anyone, and sinking them in to any who asked for too much… but then there was this boy. He was truly irritable." There was a twinkle in her eye.

This wasn't the type of distraction Kyouya had in mind, but it sufficed. He found himself interested in this story, easily deciphering the cryptic code that was her childhood.

"This irritable boy, gave this girl no slack. When she bared her fangs at him he scowled, and said that she looked ugly with that kind of face on. He told her she'd make no friends with that attitude, he told her no one would come near her. She snapped back. Once, she bit him. She bit him so hard he was hurt. It was an un-reparable damage that was life threatening. For one moon cycle, she regretted everything, and soon he managed to recuperate. When the girl saw him again, the boy said, 'where've you been?' like everything was a joke. She was so relieved she couldn't stop smiling. And then he told her, that she looked the best when she smiled…"

There was a pause. Mei was looking at her lap, her bangs obscuring her eyes. Kyouya strained over the mirror, trying to look for her expression whilst figuring out the story. It was intriguing, but why did this fairytale like story of her cousin unnerve him so? He didn't like this cheesy, clichéd, happily-ever-after story one bit, yet he couldn't bring himself to stop the story that was her life. He gave a 'hmph'.

"Uwaa…" Mei and Kyouya jerked their heads towards the sniffling taxi-driver, "Th-that was the most beautiful story I've ever heard, Ojou-san!"

The car swerved the second lane, "Ah! Concentrate Kishima-san!" called Mei, grabbing the wheel.

He rubbed his eyes, "So? In the end…"

A nostalgic smile spread across her face, "There is no ending…" she said, in a solemn yet wan tone.

* * *

They had got to the hospital now. The towering white building displayed a sense of heaven yet hell. Mei waved to the taxi driver, grinning to herself because she saved money by managing to get a discount because she was a 'nice little ojou-san'. The chat had distracted her from other things thankfully.

Mei was ignoring Kyouya again. And he was really, really annoyed. What was with the change in mood swings? He looked over his shoulder at her (he had given up on the idea of calling for his medical force) as she pushed him to the emergency block of the hospital. "Has she gotten more pale?" His dark orbs scanned the hospital he was in – it was owned by Ootori... figures.

They turned a corner and reached the desk. At the counter was a beautiful, slim woman, with wavy black hair and womanly yet child like facial features. "Excuse me," called Mei.

The woman's face expressed worry, and she made her way round the desk, running at the face-palmed man on the wheel chair. "Kyouya-ssaaaaannn!!" she called, stopping just an inch away from his face, "Your arm! My, my, what have you done with it!" her eyes travelled up and down the loosely bandaged arm, "Oh dear, look at it! The bandages are falling apart!"

Kyouya rolled his eyes. "Long time no see, Fuyumi-nee-san."

"Exactly! I haven't seen you in a while and you get yourself like this!" She bent down, gathering her sunflower yellow dress, "Now just let me fix it for you," Kyouya's objections were refused, and she began picking at the bandage, tearing it off his arm.

Mei couldn't stand it any longer. She caught the full view this time of Kyouya's arm…the blood…his arm...his arm covered in blood…oozing...oozing, dripping, drowning the bandage… She collapsed.

Kyouya turned around. The 'thump' of weight on the floor was just as he expected, and his suspicions were correct. His smile said, 'what am I going to do with you?' "Mei-san… are you afraid of blood?" He couldn't help but feel sadistically happy that he found out one of her weaknesses.

Her head was swaying and she couldn't focus, "Just, bandage up that arm…"

"But…" said Fuyumi, in a child like tone, "the bandage…" she poked it, causing Kyouya to squint, "won't... stick… back…" she puffed her cheeks, "Geez!" She was never good with organisation or being neat.

Just in time, three middle-aged, gossiping nurses happened to pass by and saw Mei slumped on the hospital floor. They rushed over, letting her lean on them. "Dear me! Are you okay, little Ojou-san?" They noticed the third son of the boss of their Ootori-hospital, "Kyouya-sama, what brings you…" in a robotic manner, the looked at Kyouya on the wheel chair, then Mei who was passing out on the floor.

The thinnest one shot up, hands on her cheeks, "Kyouya-sama is in a wheelchair and brought a girl to the hospital!"

The chubby one stuck a hand up, like she was answering a question, "The girl is a teenager and fainting on the floor!"

The shortest one leant against the wall in a melodramatic pose, "My god! One feisty energy-taking night and the result…"

They came together, pointing at Mei's stomach, "BABY!"

Fuyumi shot up, giving Kyouya a 'how could you!?' look. She ran down the corridor, screaming "SENSEEIIIIII! Do we even do THOSE kinds of operations!?"

Mei, who was seeing spots had basically no idea what was going on, and finally passed out.

And Kyouya… the shadow king was released.

Was it too.. long-winded? Oh well.. this chapter was fun to write XD Now was it fun to read? Review~

Random question to my Anomynous reviewer... is it the same person every time or different people?

Next chapter... the misunderstanding becomes a rumour that reaches the school!?

PS: More randomness! Count how many times the word 'bandage' or 'bandaged' etc is used... lol.. there are no synonyms for bandages XD